Spokane climber Jess Roskelley missing and presumed killed by avalanche in Canadian Rockies; David Lama, Hansjorg Auer also presumed dead

Renowned alpinist Jess Roskelley is presumed dead after an avalanche swept over his climbing party in the Canadian Rockies.

The 36-year-old Spokane climber was attempting a difficult route on Howse Peak with Austrian climbers David Lama, 28, and Hansjörg Auer, 35.

Roskelley told his father, John Roskelley, that he would check in Tuesday night.

He never called.

John Roskelley, who was one of the best alpinists of his generation, called Parks Canada on Wednesday morning. Canadian authorities searched the area by helicopter and saw avalanche debris, climbing gear and one partially buried body, Roskelley said.

In a news release, Parks Canada said the three climbers were presumed dead after helicopter crews saw “signs of multiple avalanches and debris containing climbing equipment.”

Park visitor safety specialist Stephen Holeczi said the helicopter crew saw “strong evidence that the climbing party was deceased.” He declined to elaborate.

Recovery isn’t currently possible because of dangerous avalanche conditions. The area around the mountain has been closed.

“Parks Canada does not require assistance with search and rescue,” said Shelley Humphries, the incident commander.

Howse Peak is in Alberta near the British Columbia provincial line in Banff National Park.

John Roskelley said he doesn’t believe the climbers survived.

The three had already climbed several difficult Canadian peaks this spring.

They were attempting a route called M16 on the east face of Howse Peak, Roskelley said.

“This route they were trying to do was first done in 2000,” Roskelley said. “It’s just one of those routes where you have to have the right conditions or it turns into a nightmare. This is one of those trips where it turned into a nightmare.”

John Roskelley knows the risks of alpinism. During his career as a professional climber, he scaled numerous routes on some of the world’s most dangerous peaks.

A former Spokane County commissioner, Roskelley climbed the 10,810-foot Howse Peak, via a different route, in the 1970s and knows the area well. On Thursday he was preparing to go to Canada along with his wife, daughter and Jess’ wife, to gather Roskelley’s belongings and see if he could access the area safely.

“It’s in an area above a basin,” he said. “There must have been a lot of snow that came down and got them off the face.”

Lama started his climbing career bouldering and sport climbing, winning the European championships in 2006 and 2007. More recently, he became a successful alpine climber. In 2018, he solo-climbed Lunag Ri, an unclimbed mountain between Tibet and Nepal.

The father-and-son duo continued to occasionally rope up together, whether it was ice climbing at Banks Lake in Central Washington or scaling world-class icefalls in the Canadian Rockies. In 2009, the father-and-son team was forced to huddle together in a snow cave on a steep, icy face during an unexpected night out as temperatures fell to 10 below zero when they couldn’t complete a climb of Snow Dome in Alberta’s Columbia Icefields.

“These things happen occasionally when you climb challenging routes,” John Roskelley said at the time.